Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Comic Books >

Morrison's Doom Patrol in Trade Paperbacks

Page: 1 ... 4 5 6 7 8(9)

ONLY NICE THINGS

12:59 / 21.09.07

So, John Byrne to be reprinted before Pollack, because better and more popular, or should they stay in order?

13:35 / 21.09.07

I think we have to look to getting the Kupperberg stuff out before all that; possibly with Invasion. Some of this was drawn by John Byrne, Hero + Legend, and really should take precedence. Anything published originally with a Vertigo badge can take a walk, no-one reads or understands that guff.

13:50 / 21.09.07

I can't see Kupperberg's run getting anything but the barebones Showcase Presents... treatment, and that would likely mean 2009 at the earliest (with several recently-solicited Showcase titles having been pushed to "late 2008", allegedly due to reprint fees.) I already have a full run of Rachel Pollack's time on the title, so I'm not desperate for a reprint, but I really think she didn't get a fair shake the first time around.

I'm not terribly interested in the Arcudi series, and in my own sad little world there wasn't a series after that.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

14:41 / 21.09.07

The Seth Fisher-drawn time travel arc in the Arcudi run--where the modern Doom Patrol's minds are swapped through time into the bodies of the originals and have to face the Brotherhood of Evil--was pretty bloody good, actually. Well worth picking up even if just for Fisher's intepretation of Beast Boy and Negative Man. There was also a decent issue examining a TV adaptation of the DP, and the story of the DP fan fact-checker involved with the production. I wasn't terribly interested in Arcudi's actual Patrol characters, but the series did show some experimentation.

21:23 / 08.01.08

Just a bump since the last volume, Planet Love, is out tomorrow. *sob* I'll be sad to see it all come to an end, but what an end. Except for the electro-shock stuff that felt cribbed from ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST and left a bad taste in my mouth, this has to be one of the most satisfying conclusions to any run of a comic book. "Take me to the real world." Yes, please.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

22:01 / 08.01.08

OH MY GOD YES!

YES!

"It's...full...full of stars..." *snort-shiver-dribble*

Needless to say, I'll be making a stop at the shop MOST ASSUREDLY, with two words on my lips: DOOM PATROL.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

05:10 / 09.01.08

Actually, on further examination, it doesn't look like this is out until next week....damn.

Oh well, time to reread.

12:48 / 09.01.08

Amazon have this as the cover:

Seems a bit of a departure from the previous Bolland ones, is this a new Bisley cover?

(http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doom-Patrol-Planet-Love-6/dp/1401216242/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199889819&sr=8-1)

12:55 / 09.01.08

It's a Tom Taggart cover from, I think, ish 59.

Essential Dazzler

12:56 / 09.01.08

That's Tom Taggart's cover to #59. DC's website has that one too, but the solicit says the actual book'll have a Bolland one.

Essential Dazzler

13:01 / 09.01.08

Speaking of Bolland Covers I've always liked the fact that #75's letter column proudly announces that Bolland is the new series regular Cover artist, but he never draws a single cover after that, Kyle Baker does them all (and well).

18:58 / 12.01.08

How so furioso? I've been on the fence about getting them. Are Drake's stories really that enjoyable? Or are they just mad ideas at play? How about some highlights, and which of the DP archives would you say is the best bet?

They're mad and camp and corny (intentionally, IMO). The characters and dialoue are major selling points: they're often totally off the wall. I think Matt Fraction may have posted scads of DP panels on his website...

(googles)

here:

http://www.mattfraction.com/archives/002773.php

There's more on there somewhere, but it will take a hardier archeologist than me to find it.

I'd reccomend all the archives thus far (1-3). Can't wait for 4 (Feb) and 5 (summer).

I've been going to SDCC for many years now and used to see Drake puttering about the con floor on an electric trolly. This was before I read his DP tales. Also saw him on various GA panels and he was a first class racontuer as well as HILARIOUSLY funny. It is one of my con regrets that I never went up to him after I'd read the tales and said "Hello."

(Other con regret: going to a comic book publisher's party instead of the Eisner Awards (as was my habit) - that was the last year Eisner was present and, IIRC, featured a keynote speach my Michael Chabon).

Anyway, GM really remained faithful to Drake's vision of the DP as freakish, prickly weirdos.

01:43 / 15.01.08

Are they eventually going to reprint the Flex Menatallo mini series?

02:27 / 15.01.08

This is an often-asked question, and a good question since many of us want that Flex series reprinted... suffice it to say that because so much of Flex is based on the old Charles Atlas ads, and legally, the Charles Atlas Estate doesn't like the idea of DC reprinting the series for that reason. DC has agreed they won't reprint it, to honor the Estate's request -- (otherwise DC gets sued, which they don't want)

Every few years there is talk that DC has gotten permission to reprint it as a paperback, some possible loophole or arrangement/make nice-nice with the Atlas estate, but it never actually materializes. We live in hope... (much like the Morrison-written Zenith paperbacks in a warehouse somewhere, similarly held up due to legal disputes...)

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

03:51 / 15.01.08

*practically vibrates with the hot-sweaty-membrane anticipation of the last Doom Patrol trade coming out on Wednesday!*

Our Lady Has Left the Building

12:53 / 15.01.08

Meh, it's not all that good.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

12:53 / 15.01.08

Only joking!

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

19:32 / 15.01.08

Don't be the Tearoom of Despair, Lady. Nobody likes the Tearoom of Despair.

Essential Dazzler

19:55 / 15.01.08

I like the Tearoom of Despair.

11:44 / 16.01.08

And so did Sapphire and Steel, so much that they stayed there for ever and ever and ever.

17:07 / 16.01.08

Just bought the trade and, despite my need to do some other stuff, I read it all in one sitting. Sure the ECT stuff gets up my nose, yes it's superhero comics that relies heavily on last-minute rescues and appearances by characters who've been hiding off panel for a while, but boy did it bring a tear to my eyes.

Re-reading this and ANIMAL MAN in trades makes me realize that Morrison has changed tremendously as a writer over the years. I like his current, mondo Silver Age a-go-go thing well enough, but there's something about the heart-on-his-sleeve young man who's never uttered the word "hype-sigil" or "fiction suit" in public, writing about the solace to be found in imaginary worlds that feels especially raw and poignant to me in AM and DP. The final issues of these runs, and in particular the final pages of both, are just pitch perfect writing. It's nice to finally have all of them in one place.

And by the way, how come Gaiman gets an Absolute Edition for his Sandman but Morrison doesn't get one for Animal Man? He's a "man" too.

17:55 / 16.01.08

Because I want to believe the best about you, Grady—and because you have demonstrated in your writing for Slate and elsewhere a largeness of worldview and a degree of horse sense beyond the capacity of much of the comics blogosphere, who seem to live entirely inside a comics-centric pop-cultural bubble—I'm going to do you the favor of assuming that your question is purely rhetorical.

19:38 / 16.01.08

I know, I know. But still...can't we all have our silly dreams?

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

00:35 / 17.01.08

Doom Force makes my head feel funny, and even when the reasons are pastiche and parody, the anatomy still makes me wince. Truly.

Bolland cover = check. It isn't as satisfying as Musclebound, where Bolland managed to portray some of the actual horror inside; Planet Love doesn't feel as though Bolland's trying, not really.

But Sane Jane, never integrated. "No more stupid super-powers!" Because first and foremost -- the Doom Patrol is a therapy group.

The Phillips-drawn Cliff Steele one-off is particularly interesting when paired with Crazy Jane's "Empire of Chairs." Possible thread to Cyclops facing the Black Bug Room, of course, but something else. I was never very fond of the Kid Eternity and Shade era Phillips art, and it's much the same here, though I like the page where Cliff "wakes up" with Rita, Larry, and Caulder. Interesting composition.

Doc Magnus and Tungsten -- demented nostalgia for the Metal Men. Will's all about demented nostalgia, looking like Bob Dobbs and constantly resurrecting robots. Doom Patrol as the war between rival mad scientists Magnus and Caulder.

I think, in the end, I'm most fond of "Down Paradise Way," and the whole convoluted story of Flex Mentallo (threaded, as it was, for quite a while) and the Pentagon Horror. The Last Stand of the Brotherhood of Dada -- Mister Nobody's demise is particularly sad and perfect. Orqwith is up there but GM hadn't quite got himself going up to full speed by that point.

10:52 / 17.01.08

Doom Patrol Planet Love Cover

Yes! Doom Patrol finally all collected!!! Hoping for Zenith and Flex Mentallo next!

23:30 / 17.01.08

One of the strange things about the Animal Man/Doom Patrol vs. the 'Silver Age a go go' period is that the earlier actually feels like the work of an older man. I don't want to say mature, since I feel like Seven Soldiers or Flex are just as emotionally engaging and intellectually rich, if not more so than AM/DP, but AM/DP definitely a world weary, seasoned perspective. The melancholy mixed with jubilation that's in a lot of Doom Patrol doesn't really resurface until All Star Superman, and the notion of GM as a lonely guy mourning over his dead cat in AM feels more like an old man than the jet setting King Mob.

I prefer the Invisibles era crazy hypersigil stuff, but I do love what he did with DP and AM, very emotionally potent stories that are a bit rawer and close to the surface. I've only got the first DP trade, but now that the last one's out, I think it's time for a reread of the whole series.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

15:41 / 22.01.08

I prefer the Invisibles era crazy hypersigil stuff, but I do love what he did with DP and AM, very emotionally potent stories that are a bit rawer and close to the surface. I've only got the first DP trade, but now that the last one's out, I think it's time for a reread of the whole series.

I'm in the midst of the big reread and, thinking about it, I think I care about the characters in the Doom Patrol more than I cared about the Invisibles (other than Fanny and Jack -- I care about them on much the same level) -- but why? Something about how Josh points out that the Patrol is only together for emotional support rather than some overarching goal like stopping an Outer Church. Their goals are always short-term (even when the world's ending), and quite often it all feels like they're humouring Cliff's delusions or neuroses by doing anything at all. They approach the world-saving in much the same way they approach their own day-to-day problems.

Interesting things: Long before Gibbons was resurrecting Ranx the Sentient City to fire it at Mogo, the Doom Patrol had to face two separate city-entities -- Orqwith, and the Cult of the Unwritten Book's Nurnheim. The Candlemaker wants to end the world but it's all just some twisted exploration of Dorothy's guilt issues, isn't it?

Our Lady Has Left the Building

20:27 / 22.01.08

He's the part of her that doesn't want to be the eternal victim to the bigotry of humanity and wants to fight back. She's Xorn, he's Magneto. He's the little light that burns in her.

Page: 1 ... 4 5 6 7 8(9)